A song of imprecation

This morning robbers broke into cars in the parking lot of the Cathedral in Boston, while a diaconal ordination was going on. The perpetrators smashed windows and ransacked the vehicles, stealing what they could, and even took the time to open people’s trunks to look for goods. Since at least two of my friends were victimized this way, I imagine the criminals hit several cars — and in broad daylight.

Well, I offer the following hymn to encapsulate the prayers of the faithful on the occasion. You can sing it to the common tune of, say, Te lucis ante terminum:

O Vindicator of the right,
Come aid thy people in their plight,
Against the men who know no laws,
Hear thou my prayer and aid my cause.

Come foil the brutes who robbed our cars,
and stole the peace that had been ours,
profaning Thy cathedral ground,
O seize them fast and hold them bound.

They scorn your might and human rules,
Break thou their teeth with burglars’ tools,
With sleeplessness beset their heads,
And bugs pursue them in their beds.

With palsy smite their loins and limbs,
and make them wince from wretched hymns.
Yes, as we suffer for thy name,
Make them, O Christ, endure the same!

So that one day in ages hence
all purified by penitence,
They may receive Thy warm embrace,
and then: please let us slap their face. Amen.